TOKAIDO DUO (2022)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
2	20-30 mins	Antoine Bauza	Funforge

In this 2-player version of one of my favourite games, players are each travelling around the Japanese island of Shikoku with three characters.

The Artist is painting and gifting beautiful pictures. The Merchant is making and selling wares. And the Pilgrim is visiting hot springs, temples, and forests.

While the art style and theme are ripped straight from the original TOKAIDO, the rest of the game plays very differently.

Each turn a player rolls three dice (one for each character) and then picks one, letting their opponent pick one and taking the remaining.

This adds a little tension to choosing as you might have an idea what your opponent needs and so want to stop it.

The end game comes from either player completing one of the characters scoring boards. which means that there is a level of control and strategy over when this is done.

Each character has a different mechanic and travels through different parts of the board. I really like that you’re balancing your characters throughout the game. With your final score coming from all three characters, you don’t want one of them lagging behind and dragging your points down.

Of course, each turn you take means your opponent will score more, so sometimes you might push one character more so as to end the game if you think you have the lead.

Like its older sibling, the art style remains simple and beautiful.

I really like the dice choosing each round. It sometimes makes for tough decisions.

And there are also a few extra tricks thrown in like the Hot Spring token that allows you to repeat an action if you have it, and little bonus tiles for each character that you can fight over.

TOKAIDO DUO is a great 2-player only game in its own right, but it’s also a great addition to the TOKAIDO universe.